Post-conflict heritage: symbolic healing and cultural renewal

Heritage is invoked for post-conflict development by international organisations, governments, and sub-national groups to provide emotional and cultural, including economic, healing for individuals and societies. However, academic critiques of healing-heritage typically cite the failure of heritage to heal, either because it cannot, or because it is managed incorrectly. Thus, an anomalous situation exists between expectations and critiques, which this study describes and explores through international policies and national and sub-national post-conflict healing-heritage initiatives from Rwanda and Uganda. Drawing on concepts of heritage as a cultural process, cultural trauma, and symbolic healing, this study proposes that heritage is neither an essentially positive nor negative post-conflict development strategy to select or avoid respectively. Instead, heritage is better understood as a common element of post-conflict renewal, which becomes intensified as the past is aggressively negotiated to provide healing related to conflict traumas. By moving beyond the ‘does heritage heal or hurt?’ distraction the meaning and function of heritage in post-conflict contexts as a common element of post-conflict healing complexes is elucidated. The implication for those who wish to manage post-conflict development through heritage is that they are just the latest in a long history of symbolic healers, from whom they have a lot to learn.     

Der Naturwissenschaftler und sein Körper. Naturwissenschaftsgeschichte aus anthropologischer Perspektive

Since it's early days modern science is confronted with the following dilemma: Scientific investigation of nature requires the availability of the scientist's body in nearly all of its activities, though on the other hand science feels obliged to minimalize any influence of this body for methodological reasons. How has science dealt with this dilemma? How has it managed to keep the balance between using the body in favour of knowledge and keeping the required distance to it? In answering these questions the paper tries to reconstruct the history of early modern science from an anthropological perspective.     

Marine Creatures and the Sea in Bronze Age Greece: Ambiguities of Meaning

Like most cultures, prehistoric Greek communities had an ambiguous relationship with the sea and the creatures that inhabit it. Positive and negative associations always co-existed, though the particular manifestations changed over time. By drawing together evidence of consumption of marine animals, seafaring, fishing, and iconography, this article unites disparate strands of evidence in an attempt to illuminate the relationship prehistoric Greeks had with marine creatures and the sea. Based on the marked reduction in seafood consumption after the Mesolithic and the use of marine creatures in funerary iconography in the post-palatial period, it becomes apparent that the sea—then as now—is an inherently ambiguous medium that captures both positive and negative emotions. On the one hand, the sea and the animals residing in it are strongly associated with death. On the other hand, the sea’s positive dimensions, such as fertility and rebirth, are expressed in conspicuous marine consumption events.     

‘Unclaimed territory’: childhood and disordered space(s)

This paper explores adult discourses in literary references which revolve around the relationship between childhood and disordered space. This association is often constructed as a positive expression of the romantic innocence of childhood and nature, but it can also be construed as negative in cases where ‘little devils’ are let loose in hazardous urban settings. The complex dynamics of disorder relating to childhood are discussed in terms of the disorders both of nature and of injustice. The paper argues that childhood needs to be conceptualized less in terms of innocence and more in terms of otherness. Disordered spaces in these terms represent territories of becoming-other, where rhizomatic scrambling of adult-ordered striated space makes room for upwellings of the immanent othernesses of children.     

Peace without social reconciliation? Understanding the trial of Generals Ríos Montt and Rodriguez Sánchez in the wake of Guatemala’s genocide

ABSTRACT

This article argues that the legal trial against Generals Efraín Ríos Montt and José Mauricio Rodriguez Sánchez for genocide and crimes against humanity has evidenced the interplay between the complex factors shaping post-conflict reconstruction and social reconciliation in post-genocide Guatemala, and, ultimately, the disjunctive impact of the country’s peace process. The ‘genocide trial’ then is more than a legal process in that it represents a thermometer for Guatemala’s peace process and, ultimately, for testing the nature and stability of the post-genocide/post-conflict conjuncture. Interiorization of human rights frameworks and justice mechanisms by indigenous and human rights activists, including of the Genocide Convention, has consolidated a partial rights culture. However, the trial and the overturning of its verdict have simultaneously evidenced the instability, fragility and disjunctive nature of post-conflict peace and the continuing impact of the profound legacy of the genocide and of social authoritarianism. The article argues that while the trial has wielded broad impact within both state institutions and society, consolidating indigenous political actors, it has simultaneously fortified spoilers and evidenced indigenous collective memory as a fragmented and contested sphere.     

Determinants of mediation success in post-conflict Bosnia: a focused comparison

The main goal of this study is to look at factors determining mediation success in post-conflict environments. More specifically, the authors focus on the level of involvement of the mediator in a post-conflict setting and argue that relational mediation strategies should fare better in such environments. A most similar systems comparison of the European Union/USA and Turkish mediation efforts in Bosnia–Herzegovina, both of which started in October 2009, renders support for the authors’ argument. Their analysis of these two cases suggests that Turkey's relational mediation strategy delivered concrete outcomes in post-Dayton Bosnia compared to the structural intervention style adopted by the European Union/USA. The authors conclude that a relational mediation strategy facilitates the achievement of constructive solutions by helping third parties to make broader assessments of the conflict situation, and by offering flexible options in issue selection and process design.     

THE PAST IS EVIL/EVIL IS PAST: ON RETROSPECTIVE POLITICS,PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY,AND TEMPORAL MANICHAEISM

One of the most remarkable phenomena in current international politics is the increasing attention paid to “historical injustice.” Opinions on this phenomenon strongly differ. For some it stands for a new and noble type of politics based on raised moral standards and helping the cause of peace and democracy. Others are more critical and claim that retrospective politics comes at the cost of present‐ or future‐oriented politics and tends to be anti‐utopian. The warnings about the perils of a retrospective politics outweighing politics directed at contemporary injustices, or strivings for a more just future, should be taken seriously. Yet the alternative of a politics disregarding all historical injustice is not desirable either. We should refuse to choose between restitution for historical injustices and struggle for justice in the present or the future. Rather, we should look for types of retrospective politics that do not oppose but complement or reinforce the emancipatory and utopian elements in present‐ and future‐directed politics. I argue that retrospective politics can indeed have negative effects. Most notably it can lead to a “temporal Manichaeism” that not only posits that the past is evil, but also tends to treat evil as anachronistic or as belonging to the past. Yet I claim that ethical Manichaeism and anti‐utopianism and are not inherent features of all retrospective politics but rather result from an underlying philosophy of history that treats the relation between past, present, and future in antinomic terms and prevents us from understanding “transtemporal” injustices and responsibilities. In order to pinpoint the problem of certain types of retrospective politics and point toward some alternatives, I start out from a criticism formulated by the German philosopher Odo Marquard and originally directed primarily at progressivist philosophies of history.     

Localising the Australian National Action Plan on Women,Peace and Security: a matter of justice

In the bid for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations (UN) Security Council, the Australian government emphasised international peace and security and Indigenous peoples as two of the eight key elements supporting its nomination. Australia's positive track record in support of the UN Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, including the delivery of an Australian National Action Plan (NAP) along with recognition of historical injustices to Indigenous Australians, was highlighted as a valid and important argument in favour of its nomination. The Australian NAP, however, has all but ignored the local context in its development and application, focusing instead on its commitments abroad. This framing of the Australian NAP is informed, firstly, by the WPS agenda policy framework applying to conflict and post-conflict situations, and, secondly, by its location within the UN mandate, requiring those situations to be internationally recognised. This article applies Nancy Fraser's tripartite justice framework to reveal that the Australian NAP gives rise to the political injustice of ‘misrepresentation’ in relation to intra-state (violent), domestically situated Indigenous–settler relations, which are denied the status of ongoing internationally recognised conflict. The author suggests that the remedy to this injustice is to reframe and recognise the conflict status of Indigenous–settler relations in the localisation of the Australian NAP. This localisation creates openings for Indigenous Australian women to engage with the WPS agenda in meaningful ways.     

The Knowledge-Centred Approach to the Somali Cultural Emergency and Heritage Development Assistance in Somaliland

Somalia has suffered a civil war since early 1991. Systematic looting, destruction and illicit excavation of sites continue without the international community (including academics, government organisations, heritage workers and humanitarian aid organisations) acknowledging this problem, let alone addressing it. The pre-war approaches to Somali cultural heritage lacked awareness-raising initiatives and basic dialogue with local communities, and hence remained uninformed about local views and methodologies regarding heritage. This has resulted in a lack of interest in building a local foundation and infrastructure for heritage management and archaeological research in the country. Today, it is clear that no measures were taken to protect cultural heritage during two decades of armed conflict in Somalia. Recently, archaeological material has become the target of ideologically motivated destruction. However, in post-conflict Somaliland, a self-declared, de facto country where there is peace and stability, possibilities for protection and management of cultural heritage exist. In order to carry out such work, an understanding of local practices is necessary. Hence, this paper presents unique research into local heritage management strategies and unveils indigenous heritage management methods, which the author refers to as the knowledge-centred approach. This approach emphasises knowledge and skill rather than objects, helping cultures such as the Somali, with strong oral transmission of knowledge, preserve their cultural heritage even in times of armed conflict. Also, this paper presents a critical assessment of the Somali cultural emergency as a whole and suggests ways of assisting different stakeholders in the protection of Somali heritage in the conflict and post-conflict eras.     

Planning post‐conflict reconstruction in Iraq: what can we learn?

Efforts to improve national and international capabilities to plan and manage post-conflict reconstruction operations are underway in many countries and are high on the agenda of several multilateral institutions. The international community has learned lessons from the numerous post-conflict reconstruction and nation-building operations that it has engaged in since the end of the Cold War but Iraq represented the most difficult and ambitious operation undertaken to date. Although the coalition effort in Iraq had many unique features, we can nonetheless draw lessons from the tenure of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) both for the ongoing effort in Iraq and more broadly for future post-conflict reconstruction operations.
This article discusses the challenges of post-conflict reconstruction planning and mission management and assesses what happened under the CPA. It draws lessons for the future international effort in Iraq and for the international community as it considers how to plan and organize future such missions.     

日常消费空间中的情绪产生与作用机制——基于南京的实证研究

本研究引入消费者行为学的"认知-情绪-行为"模型，并加入空间要素建立整体框架，采用结构方程模型与质性研究相结合的方法，探讨消费空间中影响消费者情绪产生的因素以及情绪对居民生活满意度的作用。研究表明，积极情绪的产生主要受到个人价值观的鲜明度、消费场所物质环境的宜人度和消费场所中社会交往的深度影响；消极情绪的产生主要受到个体经济地位和个人价值观的鲜明度影响；积极情绪与消极情绪均显著影响消费者的生活满意度，积极情绪会导致较高生活满意度的产生。本研究从情绪的角度阐释消费空间和人的关系，是从微观尺度上对情绪地理学研究的新探索，同时也为城市消费空间研究与规划提供了人本主义的新视角。     

“认知—情感—整体”三维视角下的遗产旅游地形象感知研究——以湘江古镇群为例

以湘江古镇群互联网旅游数据为研究对象，采用文本分析、主题分析和情感分析等方法，借助旅游地形象“认知—情感—整体”三维模型对遗产旅游地形象感知进行了探索。结果表明：①游客对湘江古镇群的认知形象以自然、场所/地域和活动为主，非物质形态记忆重心由饮食文化向历史文化偏移，环境生态记忆由模糊山水环境生态向具象历史文化空间记忆发展。②游客对古镇旅游设施与饮食文化积极感知最为强烈，影响湘江古镇群的消极情感形象最为重要的因素是门票价格贵、性价比不高等。③游客对湘江古镇群推荐与重游意愿普遍偏低，整体情感呈负性与正性情绪两极分化，正性情绪占比较高。     

Jean Améry's Concept of Resentment at the Crossroads of Ethics and Politics

The questions of forgiveness and political justice have recently become intertwined with the “transitional justice” project, the aim of which is the coming to terms with past human rights violations. This article demonstrates that “transitional justice” is less concerned with providing justice than with achieving historical closure, moral redemption, and a “new beginning.” It proposes that justice requires a profound reflection of a political nature by introducing and discussing Jean Améry's concept of resentment. Central to Améry's view of resentment is the restoration of the victim's social status and dignity, the validation of the experience of victimhood; his view therefore contrasts with the Nietzschean derogative view of ressentiment. On the basis of Améry's conceptualizations and with reference to Derrida's notions of “hiatus” and “forgiveness as impossibility,” the article problematizes the relation of ethics and politics—which the “transitional justice” project takes as given. It suggests that to theorize on justice, one needs to parenthesize the moral imagery of forgiveness and bring thirdness (or plurality) to the fore as the space where the identities of “victims” and “perpetrators” are established and played out.     

The role of ex-paramilitaries and former prisoners in political tourism

Northern Ireland has a turbulent history, enduring 30 years of violence known as ‘The Troubles’. Streets in Belfast that were once ‘no-go’ areas are now popular tourist attractions. They are the sites of assassinations, attempted murders and memorials to the dead - both those killed and those who killed. This article reports back on interviews and focus groups with ex-prisoners and ethnographic walks, participating in guided tours of streets, memorial sites and cemeteries, led by former paramilitaries turned tour guides. These local, sometimes controversial, figures play a key role in Belfast's tourist industry, letting those at the very centre of the conflict present and represent the city's dark and contentious history. In this article, we argue that ‘Troubles tourism’ is not about glorifying or commodifying violence, as its critics have suggested (Northern Ireland Assembly, 2008; O'Doherty, 2016; Tinney, 2017), but rather, it enables the contested nature of the conflict to be understood by allowing competing discourses to co-exist and divergent positions to be tolerated, which is politically important for peace. As such, post-conflict tourism requires a different analytical approach than that currently offered in the ‘dark tourism’ literature, which often focuses on visitors' motivations and expectations, and the commodification of history. Instead, we suggest that increased attention be dedicated to the voices of those with previous experience of violence, and the potential of this to understand current ongoing struggle, as well as consider how tourism might contribute to community transition in a post-conflict context.     

Environmental Justice Storytelling: Angels and Isotopes at Yucca Mountain,Nevada

Abstract: This paper discusses the productive role of storytelling in community struggles for environmental justice. The individual and collective task of environmental justice storytelling highlights where the politics of pollution intersect with geographical imaginations. Storytelling takes on a productive role in transforming localized and individual emotions and experiences of environmental injustice into public knowledge that is performed in the world. This paper draws on a case study of nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. I focus on how storytelling enacts scenarios of environmental witnessing and transformation that hold together a plurality of presences, absences, action and imagination, past histories and hope for the future.     

身体视角下的旅游体验——基于徒步游记与访谈的扎根理论分析

身体理论的发展为旅游体验本质的探究提供了新的可能,国内外的研究开始关注人的某些感官体验,但作为一个整体的身体还极少得到审视。在梳理相关文献的基础上,采用身体地理学视角,对收集的徒步旅行游记和访谈进行扎根理论分析,提炼出24个范畴、7个主范畴和1个核心范畴,据此建立旅游体验本质模型。结果表明,徒步旅游体验本质上是一种具身化生成实践,即旅游者通过具体身体的参与,与旅游情境深度融合,寻求个体完善与成长的对象性活动。具体包括身体意识的唤醒、身心的浸入、与他人和自然的共在以及个体的生成等四种体验类型。这些体验主要通过旅游者由身体痛苦到精神快乐的逆向选择、具有仪式象征意义的行为表演和面向自我的反思性观照三种典型路径达到。在此过程中,作为整体的身体解除了规训和压制,展现出生动鲜活的样貌,迈向持续的生成之域。     

The Scalar Production of Injustice within the Urban Forest

Research has recently argued, quite successfully, for a more dialectic appreciation of urban nature/society relations. Despite this progress, there is still the need to recognize that the social production of urban environments explicitly leads to uneven urban environments and environmental injustice. Environmental inequalities clearly exist within cities; when taking into account how environmental externalities play out at different scales, the degree to which something is unjust becomes less clear. This paper discusses how the scales at which socially produced urban forest externalities play out pose difficulties for considering environmental injustice. This issue, while interesting from the point of view of considering scalar nature/social dialects, also makes policy considerations for urban reforestation problematic as a result of the ways in which urban forests contribute to local/global ecological scenarios.     

Non-response error versus measurement error: A dilemma when using mail questionnaires for election studies

One strategy used to increase response rates when using mail questionnaires is to prolong the period of data collection. This paper examines the consequences of such a strategy on the Australian Election Studies (1996–2004). The findings suggest that such a strategy has both positive and negative consequences on the overall quality of the survey. On the one hand, prolonging the period of data collection decreases the non-response error by providing a somewhat better representation of hard-to-reach groups of respondents such as the young, full-time employed, and those disinterested in politics. On the other hand, prolonging the period of data collection increases the risk of measurement error. The evidence suggests that post-election events significantly impact on respondents' political opinions. More specifically, the longer respondents wait to return their questionnaire after the elections the more positive their opinions of winning leaders, the more negative their opinions of defeated leaders and the more distant they feel with the policies of defeated parties. Australian investigators thus face a dilemma in deciding when to stop the fieldwork period for their mail election surveys: they must choose between non-response error and measurement error.     

Networking nature,or serengeti behind the dikes

Nowadays, wildlife has no chance to be conserved and maintained without the helping hand of man. Ambitious plans to adopt an offensive rather than defensive approach to conservation by creating ‘new nature’ led to initiatives to build ecological networks, from the local, through the regional and the national to the European level. Nature policy in the Netherlands aims to realize a National Ecological Network that is linked up with a projected Pan‐European Ecological Network. This article also discusses the social conflicts engendered by this policy and the ambivalent cultural reactions to which the deliberate ‘production’ of nature gives rise.     

Pre-emptive mobilities: Russian real estate abroad (the case of owners from Murmansk Region)

The article discusses mobilities connected with Russian real estate acquisition abroad during the post-Soviet decades. We take the specific case of Murmansk Region as a source location. Our main argument is that such mobilities are motivated to a significant extent by a search of risk-free destinations and thus reflect perception of insecurity at home. The empirical data reveal the predominantly post-Soviet middle class nature of this movement, as well as its trans-generational agenda. We claim that the movement is pre-emptive in the sense of establishing a foothold abroad in view of possible negative economic and political developments at home. Theorizing this phenomenon requires placing it in a politically informed and temporally extended perspective. We conclude that Russian real estate acquisition abroad reveals divergences between current ideological rhetoric of the political leadership, on the one hand, and preferred courses of action by the post-Soviet middle class, on the other hand.